1. Website: Art Cyclopedia
2. Website Address: http://www.artcyclopedia.com/
3. Copyright date and/or Last Update: ©2007
4. Author/Organization Credentials: Art Cyclopedia is a privately owned company that is based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
The author of the website is John Malyon; he is the president and the features editor of Art Cyclopedia. Malyon has a long list of successful articles that have appeared in The Washington Times, The New Criterion and the ArtCritical. According to the list of facts found on the website under the Press information, the site first went online in February, of 1999, and it has as many as 8,000 visitors everyday. The Art Cyclopedia also has over 1,000,000 people who have used the site as a resource for information about artists. It also has 24,000 links and 80,000 works of art by 7,500 artists.
5. Website Design and Ease of Navigation: The overall design of this web site is sequenced in a logical manner, making navigation extremely easy; this is just one of the impressive features of the web site. Another great feature is that it covers such a vast amount of information on art; this is why it is one of my favorite sites.
The homepage is probably the greatest feature of the website offering a simple format to help you find just what you are looking for, whether it is a particular artist or an art movement, it is easy to locate from the homepage. Here you will find search boxes for artist by name, title, or art museum. You will also find browse artists by name, medium, subject, nationality or women artists, listed in alphabetical order making your search far easier. Just below the artist search is the art movement search list that is also listed in alphabetical order making the search much easier. Another great feature is the “link to this page” link at the top right hand corner so that you could use the page as a resource.
There is an actualsizer bar under “other features” that allows the viewer to view the art work at the actual size of the real art work, allowing the viewer greater access to the details of the artwork, this feature also helps those with visual impairments.
6. Response and Recommendation for Use: What I personally like about this web site is that educators who need to find resources about artists, or art movements can find images that can be copied for art lessons or handouts. This site makes avoiding issues of copyright infringement absolute for the most part, because next to the image is a symbol of a green check mark that means it expressly allows the images to be used for educational or non-commercial purposes. The information also has a new standard preference checkmark in red that document the basic factual details about the artists and their works.
In addition, the Art Cyclopedia is a great resource according to many of the reviews that it has received from very reliable sources. For example: the Washington Posts wrote an article on (May 7, 1999), giving the site rave reviews about the ease of use, pointing out how frustrating using a search engine to find information on culture can be. This is just one of many of the positive comments made about the website by various newspapers according to the information I found on the website.
Overall this site is easy to maneuver throughout, has a wealth of information about art, is highly reliable, and offers great resources for teachers or other individuals who are looking to learn more about art, therefore I would definitely recommend this site.
